I have written one post already with some of Brodie’s comments on Five on a Treasure Island (and his love of the series in general). We are all the way up to Mystery Moor now, and I find him making Famous Five related comments quite often which I absolutely love. So I thought it was time to make another post looking at the next couple of books – having sent Stef updates every evening after story time.

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Five Go Adventuring Again

Although he loved the first book we didn’t immediately jump into the second. I had thought we might read one every so often, and so we read two Dick King-Smith books before, two weeks later, we decided on Five Go Adventuring Again.

The first thing I have recorded him saying is that Mr and Mrs Sanders must be evil smugglers because they have a hidey-hole behind the sliding panel in the hall. I couldn’t help but laugh at that. Maybe it was my attempt at an elderly all-purpose Cornishesque accent that misled him? I was trying for sweet and kindly.

He was more astute in his second prediction. He looked at the picture of the linen scrap and said “that’s a clue to the secret path! It must be in the farm house!” I thought it was interesting that he used the words secret path as those are one of the translations suggested by Mr Roland – a secret path, or a secret road.

I sometimes ask him questions to gauge what he’s thinking, especially when there’s something potentially misleading going on. So I asked him, quite casually, what he thought of Mr Roland. By this point George is well against him, while the others trust him and I wondered which side Brodie would fall on.

“I like Mr Roland, but I haven’t seen his lips.”

I loved that response! He remembered George talking about Mr Roland’s thin lips, but couldn’t make his own judgement as he hadn’t seen them.

(It was this point that I said to Stef that I should start a blog about his comments, and well, here we are.)

After Mr Roland has lied about knowing the artists he declared that “[Mr Roland] must be one of the smuggler family!” 

I’m not sure why he was so obsessed with smugglers and smuggling because there aren’t actually any references to it in the first two books.

I tried to get him to say Enid Blyton after one chunk of bedtime reading and the result was hysterical. The closest he could get was Elin Blightning. I apologise as there’s a bit of me speaking in my dulcet Dundonian in the clip below, too, but you can perhaps get an idea of why I struggle doing convincing accents!

Back to Brodie’s comments! As soon as George spotted the eight panels above the fire he said “that must be the entrance to the secret passage!” I’m thinking (with typical motherly pride) how smart he is and then he comes out with “It was on the tinfoil!”

So now, in Brodie’s mind, Mr Roland has been upgraded to a robber, though earlier he was sure it was George as she was the only one to have been in the study. He also twigged that Mr Roland had already attempted a theft the night he was caught by Timmy, and thinks he wants to do his own experiments using the stolen pages.

Another night he guessed that the secret way went to “Kirrin Farmhouse, where they found the tinfoil!” so again, he manages to sound both smart and silly in the same sentence. He thought the passage coming into the cupboard behind the secret door was “all very weird.” We ended on the cliff-hanger of the men coming up to find the doors locked.

“It’s a good thing they locked the doors. There’s only one key – only two keys – and it’s a good thing they’re on the inside!” but after a pause “but maybe the men can push the doors open. With an axe!”

At this point in the book he said his favourite character was “the boy, Julian” now ( he had said it was George before) because “he’s so clever and he is always the one saying things.” I suggested that Julian’s bossy and Brodie agreed “he’s a bossy boots.”

On finishing the book I asked him a few questions. His favourite part was when they were in the secret passage because that was the most exciting and George is his favourite now, because she’s the fiercest

He asked me how many more to go and I said 19.

“Yeah!! I’m going to read all 19!!”

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Five Run Away Together

There was no gap between Five Go Adventuring Again and Five Run Away Together. We finished one on Wednesday night and he started the next on Thursday night. He asked me why it was called Five Run Away Together, and then, as he so often does, he answered his own question.

“I know, because they run away from a ghost!!”

I think we all know that this won’t be his last wild prediction for the series!

He really liked the Georgie Porgie song and laughed like anything at it – I suppose on its own it’s kind of a funny song. Perhaps aided by me singing it as mockingly as I could.

I asked Brodie where he thought Aunt Fanny and and Uncle Quentin were (just as George finds the house empty) and he said “They’re locked away somewhere! I know, Kirrin farmhouse with the artists!”

I reminded him that the artists had been arrested in the last book. “Oh yeah, then there must be another baddie around!” Then, after the note from Uncle Quentin, and Julian pulling Edgar’s nose he said “I bet that note wasn’t real. I think Edgar wrote it! He must have them locked up somewhere!” This is actually quite a clever guess, though unfortunately not right – he was so disappointed to be wrong.

(At this point Stef said “You need to blog these” and I told her that I was using the chat with her to log what he’d said so I didn’t forget.)

His next guess was better – he correctly guessed that George’s plan was to go to her island. I laughed like anything when George bought her supplies and Julian wonders what she’s up to, and Brodie said, in an isn’t-it-obvious sort of voice – “she’s doing her plan!!”

Upon discovering that the only whole room in the castle has fallen in and asking Where will they sleep? he immediately said “The pirate ship!” To be fair the Five do investigate the wreck as a possibility.

Someone has been on Kirrin Island. “I know! It was the man with the fire! But how did he get there, through the rocks? He must have parachuted from a plane!” One point to Brodie!

The Five guess that someone in the village has been collecting smuggled goods from the island. “Mrs Stick! She’s the smuggler!” Another point to Brodie.

I was amused at him being slightly disdainful that the Five hadn’t found the hole to the cave before. (And I kind of agree, especially seeing as George insists she knows every inch of her island!)

[Despairingly]”Oh Juuulian! He always comes up with the ideas.”

I asked him why this was a bad thing – “He doesn’t let anyone else have the ideas.” I said that he’s bossy. “Yes he is bossy. But he is the oldest, that means he has to be the leader.” At least he didn’t say it’s because he’s a boy.

Brodie’s list of things they would need to take to the island: Food, a stove, and chairs. Obviously not a fan of roughing it and sitting on the floor!

When Dick asks why they don’t always have meals like this he said “Yes it all goes so well together.” Tinned meat sandwiches, pineapple chunks, and then sardines dug out of the tin with biscuits… Ok then.

A rather intelligent comment I thought – when they put knots in the rope for getting in and out of the cave – “But that will make the rope shorter.”

When ?Dick says he hopes they hear/see something of the smugglers – “I don’t. I want to hear more about Anne playing houses in the cave.” I always like those bits too!

When they couldn’t find the tin opener he remembered from like four chapters and two nights before “It’s in their pocket!”

We had a lack of comments one night, I think he was too engrossed in the story. But he did find the animal noises in the dungeon hilarious and insisted on making the echo sound effects to my noises.

Before bed that night he said

“Mummy… I absolutely… LIKE the Famous Five.”

High praise indeed!

For all his astute remarks Brodie is six and has some pretty wild thought processes. He thought that cows could a) pick up mud in their mouths and throw it at people by shaking their heads and b) might steal cushions and blankets for a nice place to sleep.

Upon the reveal of the girls’ clothes in the trunk he came to the conclusion that Mrs Stick is having a baby girl and they want to have it without a doctor knowing. He couldn’t explain why, though.

He had me laughing again with a conversation about tongue. I had read a meal description that included tongue and he interrupted me. “TONGUE?” and showed me his tongue to make sure I understood. I explained it would be cow’s tongue. He considered this .“Does it have saliva on it?”

He couldn’t guess what the girl’s scream meant, unless it was a doll that could talk but he did know what the word kidnappers meant.

While reading this the schools went strike so we played schools at home (complete with school bell sound from YouTube) and finished the book as our literacy work. (Yes we are both in our pyjamas. Pretend school at home doesn’t require real clothes.)

The school had sent us some different activities including the one below.

Choose a story to enjoy with an adult. As the adult reads, listen for new or interesting words. Ask what they mean. Talk about the different characters and who you liked best. You could try retelling the story afterwards. Try drawing pictures of the beginning, middle and end of the story. Now try writing a sentence under each picture to explain what is happening.

Picture 1: George finds a letter – She is reaching up to the mirror which has the letter tucked into it, and Edgar is on the sofa.

Picture 2: Julian climbs down the rope – The rope has a lot of knots in it, then there are the four blankets for sleeping and their tins and food on the rocky shelf.

Picture 3: Jennifer is rescued – She is saying thank you.

He didn’t think it was very fair on Edgar to get locked up, as he didn’t do any of the kidnapping. But “it was the only thing they could do”.

At the end of this book Julian is back to being his favourite.